"The reason that Apple is able to create products like the iPad is because we've always tried to be at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts," he said.

Jobs' lifelong interest in the humanities gave Apple a human touch.

By combining tech and the liberal arts, Jobs said that Apple was able to "to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive, easy-to-use, fun-to-use, so that they really fit the users."

'King Lear' by William Shakespeare

Jobs really began his literary bent in the last two years of high school.

"I started to listen to music a whole lot," he tells Isaacson, "and I started to read more outside of just science and technology — Shakespeare, Plato. I loved 'King Lear.'"

The tragedy may have provided a cautionary tale to a young Jobs, since it's the story of an aged monarch going crazy trying to divide up his kingdom.

"'King Lear' offers a vivid depiction of what can go wrong if you lose your grip on your empire, a story surely fascinating to any aspiring CEO," says Daniel Smith, author of "How to Think Like Steve Jobs."

Now, though I am a beginner on the path, I have returned to the West for a time to work out karma or unfulfilled commitment. Part of this commitment is to share what I have learned with those of you who are on a similar journey ... Each of us finds his unique vehicle for sharing with others his bit of wisdom.

For me, this story is but a vehicle for sharing with you the true message, the living faith in what is possible.

"It was profound," Jobs said. "It transformed me and many of my friends."

There was a copy there of "Autobiography of a Yogi" in English that a previous traveler had left, and I read it several times, because there was not a lot to do, and I walked around the village to village and recovered from my dysentery.

Unlike the sickness, the book remained a major part of Jobs' life. He reread it every year.

'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' by Shunryu Suzuki

Amazon

After Jobs got back from India his interest in meditation continued to flourish. This is partly thanks to geography — 1970s California was the place where Zen Buddhism got its first foothold in America, and Jobs was able to attend classes led by Shunryu Suzuki, the Japanese monk who authored "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind."

"Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since," Jobs told Isaacson. "At one point I was thinking about going to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, but my spiritual advisor urged me to stay here (in California)."

It's imporant that we make this transformation, because of what Clayton Christensen calls "the innovator's dilemma," where people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past it, and we certainly don't want to be left behind.